Any hopes of seeing featherweight number one Cris Cyborg dropping down to join the exciting UFC championship title mix at 135lb appear to have been counted out after the Brazilian spoke of the struggles she’s currently having attempting to make 140lb.
The Octagon returns to Brazil this Saturday night with their second event in the capital city Brasilia, headlined by a catchweight bout at 140lb between Invicta featherweight champion Cyborg and regular 145lb’er Lina Lansberg. Much has been made of the UFC’s decision to set this fight at a catchweight, especially when there is a massive spotlight on weight cutting and fighter health in the sport, not to mention the struggle Cyborg went through to make the weight prior to her UFC debut at UFC 198 this past May.
And, as of yesterday, Cyborg revealed she still had 24lb to cut before the official weigh-ins take place on Friday at the local time of 9am. In addition, Cyborg said that for the first time she’s taking birth control medication to help her carry extra water weight.
“I fly from America to Brazil [five days ago] 168lb,” Cyborg told The MMA Hour podcast. “Today, I wake up 165. In this camp, my nutrition coach, he starts giving to me birth control, and I never take this in my life, and I take this three months, every day. My coach says it will be good for me, I believe in him, and, man I fly from America to Brazil 168lb. My body will hold more water than normal, and I don’t think this will really help my body.”
During her camp she revealed it’s been a challenge to lose any weight or to even drop down below 150lb, despite ramping up her training regiment to double that of what she normally undertakes. Despite that she’s still open to the idea of fighting at 140lb again in the future.
“This camp I don’t touch 150,” Cyborg added. “It’s really scary, I look in the mirror, I trained double and I don’t know why I don’t touch ’50. Just something different in this camp is I take birth control. Last fight, I make 140, it was successful. I don’t want to say I’ll never fight 140 again, that’s probably not true. But a lot of things have to change.
“If I make 140, I sacrifice a lot of things in my life, my diet, my training, my thyroid, its insane to make 140, I think a lot of things have to be put on the table before I make 140 again.”
Her latest Instagram post this morning shows she still has some way to go as she tips the scales at 163.8lb.
